Tribal leader under fire from relatives over delay to election

Ngai Tahu leader Mark Solomon's Kaikoura runanga remains one of only two South Island runanga not preparing for elections to the iwi board.

And some of Mr Solomon's own family have criticised the lack of action.

In the decade since Ngai Tahu's Treaty settlement, Mr Solomon has never had to fight an election in Kaikoura, though tribal heads say that is not his fault.

Mr Solomon heads Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu (Tront) the powerful tribal board, made up of 18 runanga.

Ngai Tahu, which has holdings estimated to be worth $500 million, runs an electoral system in which voters select an appointment committee which then selects a representative to Tront from nominated candidates.

For the first time Tront is running 18 simultaneous elections, a situation triggered by an electoral review last year.

But Mana Solomon, a 31-year-old nephew to the tribal leader, said while 16 other runanga had either run or were planning elections, Kaikoura had done little to inform whanau about candidates.

He was angry that the tribe's website says only that the runanga is "still discussing process".

"I don't know what that means. What's happening now is disgraceful. It's a basic democratic right to vote and yet we've got no idea."

Mark Solomon confirmed through a spokesman he would be standing for election.

Tront chief executive Anake Goodall said Ngai Tahu legislation was vague about how it could elect members. But it wasn't good enough that the tribe had taken so long to sort out the electoral process.

Mr Goodall said Kaikoura would likely miss the deadline for elections, but he hoped they would complete the process by the end of March.

However, he said Kaikoura had been given "contradictory" electoral advice in the past, which could explain the delays.

A senior kaumatua said the electoral committee system reflected a desire to protect the "ahi kaa" - those people who kept the marae working, in effect giving power to runanga. But that also meant it was open to cronyism.

"The Kaikoura situation is very highly personalised ... If there's ever a political problem the inter-family personality divisions and intensity of it all is much more prominent in Kaikoura than elsewhere in the tribe."